The early results from the Disavow tool seem to be basically non existent to this point.

Many SEOs are speculating that the Disavow tool is nothing more than a data collection exercise with Google comparing the bad links they have already discovered with that of the ones being confessed. They most likely wanted to see how well they matched those being confessed and learn more about what they missed.

This Google fishing expedition is right on track for the Google Empire. Let’s see how many of us will confess and/or work for the evil ones without getting paid but instead be punished.

It is this SEO’s opinion that Google is just trying to sell more AdWords. The fewer sites they can rank in the SERPs the more money they can make. Shouldn’t the quality and relevancy of the content be the controlling factor and not the number of “questionable links”?

If you’ve ever been caught up in linkspam, you may have seen a message in Webmaster Tools about “unnatural links” pointing to your site. We send you this message when we see evidence of paid links, link exchanges, or other link schemes that violate our quality guidelines. If you get this message, we recommend that you remove from the web as many spammy or low-quality links to your site as possible. This is the best approach because it addresses the problem at the root. By removing the bad links directly, you’re helping to prevent Google (and other search engines) from taking action again in the future. You’re also helping to protect your site’s image, since people will no longer find spammy links pointing to your site on the web and jump to conclusions about your website or business.

If you’ve done as much as you can to remove the problematic links, and there are still some links you just can’t seem to get down, that’s a good time to visit our new Disavow links page. When you arrive, you’ll first select your site.

PPC Embarrassments of the Romney 2012 Presidential Campaign

During the last month of the election, the Mitt Romney presidential campaign bought pay-per-click ads on variations of “mom,” “mother,” and “grandmother.” What they ended up with was a plethora of internet faux pas that could …

PPC Embarrassments of the Romney 2012 Presidential Campaign

During the last month of the election, the Mitt Romney presidential campaign bought pay-per-click ads on variations of “mom,” “mother,” and “grandmother.” What they ended up with was a plethora of internet faux pas that could make even the most experienced sailor blush.

The ads pointing to mittromney.com appeared on searches like “mom and daughter in bed”, “moms that f**k” and more. Check out the table below.

It gets better, or worse, depending on which side of the fence you are standing. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

Keyword searches that triggered ads for mittromney.com in 2012.

Keyword

Daily Search Volume

naked mom

6700

naked old grannies

146

mothers f**ked

3666

mothers f**king

8200

hot f**king moms

1350

old f**king granny

903

moms f**king sons

3016

f**kers mom

603

f**king mother

27433

mother f**kers

8200

my mom f**king

4500

old mom f**k

740

moms that f**k

33333

f**k mother

33333

If you add up all those searches, it equals 132,123 per day.

That adds up to about 3.9 million people saw one of the pages. This isn’t just a one time occurrence.

Mitt Romney’s campaign also opted in to broad match on “Mitt,” leaving not quite so shocking, but still irrelevant ads running on searches for “oven mitts.” Here, though, they bet on variations of “mom,” “mother,” and “grandmother.” No matter their intention, they apparently failed to consider what millions of people enjoy about the anonymity of the internet and moms.

We will have to pull out the Broad Match Blame ™ from the attic for many of these political ad faux pas. The Romney campaign set up their ads to appear whenever someone searches for “president” or “obamacare.” There’s no way they can capture every single campaign-related idea that someone would search for, so they go the broad match route. It casts an extremely wide net to include all kinds of searches that happen to use the term the campaign considered important.

Left untamed, though, broad match can run wild and backfire when a candidate’s ad pops up alongside a search that isn’t very presidential.

Let’s be very clear. The ads that mittromney.com have been running on Google were most likely never intended to run on the searches that they did. That doesn’t change the fact that they did appear.

Roberts pointed out a simple solution they overlooked.

“Using a negative match setting protects them from mismatches like these. They can still advertise on ‘mom’-related searches, but negative match tells Google to hold your ad back on searches that include clearly off-topic phrases.”

The Romney campaign has eventually figured out its mistakes, and it recently cut ads on those searches.

So what have we learned from all this? — Please use the negative match options! Or suffer the consequences.

]]>http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2012/11/romneys-campaign-shows-internet-inexperience/feed/0http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2012/11/romneys-campaign-shows-internet-inexperience/Open Letter to Pat McQuaid from Greg LeMondhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/optimizician/~3/6LocgOjKNUM/
http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2012/10/pat-mcquaid-from-greg-lemond/#commentsMon, 29 Oct 2012 21:37:13 +0000http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/?p=6281Open Letter to Pat McQuaid from Greg LeMondPlease retweet or pass this letter around. Originally posted on Greg LeMond’s Facebook PageOctober 24 update: Can anyone help me out? I know this sounds kind of lame but I am not well versed in …

]]>Open Letter to Pat McQuaid from Greg LeMondPlease retweet or pass this letter around. Originally posted on Greg LeMond’s Facebook PageOctober 24 update: Can anyone help me out? I know this sounds kind of lame but I am not well versed in social marketing. I would like to send a message to everyone that really loves cycling. I do not use twitter and do not have an organized way of getting some of my own “rage” out. I want to tell the world of cycling to please join me in telling Pat McQuaid to f##k off and resign. I have never seen such an abuse of power in cycling’s history- resign Pat if you love cycling. Resign even if you hate the sport.

Pat McQuaid, you know damn well what has been going on in cycling, and if you want to deny it, then even more reasons why those who love cycling need to demand that you resign.

I have a file with what I believe is well documented proof that will exonerate Paul.

Pat in my opinion you and Hein are the corrupt part of the sport. I do not want to include everyone at the UCI because I believe that there are many, maybe most that work at the UCI that are dedicated to cycling, they do it out of the love of the sport, but you and your buddy Hein have destroyed the sport.

Pat, I thought you loved cycling? At one time you did and if you did love cycling please dig deep inside and remember that part of your life- allow cycling to grow and flourish- please! It is time to walk away. Walk away if you love cycling.

As a reminder I just want to point out that you recently you accused me of being the cause of USADA’s investigation against Lance Armstrong. Why would you be inclined to go straight to me as the “cause”? Why shoot the messenger every time?

Every time you do this I get more and more entrenched. I was in your country over the last two weeks and I asked someone that knows you if you were someone that could be rehabilitated. His answer was very quick and it was not good for you. No was the answer, no, no , no!

The problem for sport is not drugs but corruption. You are the epitome of the word corruption.

You can read all about Webster’s definition of corruption. If you want I can re-post my attorney’s response to your letter where you threaten to sue me for calling the UCI corrupt. FYI, I want to officially reiterate to you and Hein that in my opinion the two of your represent the essence of corruption.

I would encourage anyone that loves cycling to donate and support Paul in his fight against the Pat and Hein and the UCI. Skip lunch and donate the amount that you would have spent towards that Sunday buffet towards changing the sport of cycling.

I donated money for Paul’s defense, and I am willing to donate a lot more, but I would like to use it to lobby for dramatic change in cycling. The sport does not need Pat McQuaid or Hein Verbruggen- if this sport is going to change it is now. Not next year, not down the road, now! Now or never!

People that really care about cycling have the power to change cycling- change it now by voicing your thought and donating money towards Paul Kimmage’s defense, (Paul, I want to encourage you to not spend the money that has been donated to your defense fund on defending yourself in Switzerland. In my case, a USA citizen, I could care less if I lost the UCI’s bogus lawsuit. Use the money to lobby for real change).

If people really want to clean the sport of cycling up all you have to do is put your money where your mouth is.

Don’t buy a USA Cycling license. Give up racing for a year, just long enough to put the UCI and USA cycling out of business. We can then start from scratch and let the real lovers in cycling direct where and how the sport of cycling will go.

If you optimize a page that sets off Google’s alarms they will reduce your rank and see if they can get you to do something about it. There’s the trap. Now they have their proof that you are trying to manipulate rankings.
Here is the proof.

Google’s Rank-Modifying Spammers Patent

Googles Webmaster Guidelines spotlight a wide range of patterns that the search engine discourages against, that someone might pursue in if and when they were to attempt to advance their rankings with the search engine in ways designed to misguide it. The guidelines begin with the following warning.

Even if you choose not to implement any of these suggestions, we strongly encourage you to pay very close attention to the “Quality Guidelines,” which outline some of the illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from the Google index or otherwise impacted by an algorithmic or manual spam action. If a site has been affected by a spam action, it may no longer show up in results on Google.com or on any of Google’s partner sites.

A Google patent awarded in the middle of August depicts a few ways in which the search engine might react when it believes theres a possibility that such patterns might be transpire on a page, where they may lead to the rankings of pages being improved in those search rankings. This screen shot associated with the patent demonstrates how search results might be reordered founded upon such rank modifying spam.
Those practices, identified in the patent as rank-modifying spamming techniques, may imply techniques which include:

Keyword stuffing

Invisible text

Tiny text

Page redirects

Meta tags stuffing

Link-based manipulation

While the patent contains definitions of these practices, I’d recommend reading the definitions for those quality guidelines over on the Google help pages which go into much more detail. Whats really interesting about this patent isnt that Google is taking steps to try to keep people from manipulating search results, but rather the possible steps they might take while doing so.

A system determines a first rank associated with a document and determines a second rank associated with the document, where the second rank is different from the first rank. The system also changes, during a transition period that occurs during a transition from the first rank to the second rank, a transition rank associated with the document based on a rank transition function that varies the transition rank over time without any change in ranking factors associated with the document.

When Google believes that such techniques are being utilized on a page, it might react to them in ways that the individual attempting to engage in spamming might not anticipate. Rather than outright improving the rankings of those pages, or withdrawing them from search results, Google might answer with what the patent refers to as a time-based “rank transition function.”

The rank transition function provides confusing indications of the impact on rank in response to rank-modifying spamming activities. The systems and methods may also observe spammers’ reactions to rank changes caused by the rank transition function to identify documents that are actively being manipulated. This assists in the identification of rank-modifying spammers.

Lets suppose that you have a page in Googles index, and you work to boost the quality of the content on that page and get a number of links that page, and those actions cause the page to increase in rankings for certain search terms. The ranking of that page before the changes would be otherwise known as the old rank, and the ranking subsequently is called the prospective rank. Your changes might be the result of legitimate alterations to your page. A page where techniques like keyword stuffing or concealed text has been used might also potentially raise in rankings too, with an old rank as well as a higher target rank.

The rank conversion purpose described above may make a transition rank involving the old rank and the prospective rank for a page.

During the conversion associated with the old rank to the target rank, the conversion rank could result in:

a time-based delay reaction

a negative reaction

a random reaction

an unexpected reaction

For instance, rather than just instantly boost the rank associated with a page when there have been some adjustments to it , and or to the links aimed to a page, Google might hold off awhile and even cause the rankings of a page to go down firstly before it goes up. Or the page might pump up in rankings to begin with, but to a much smaller scale than the individual making the changes might have anticipated.

Google may keep track of the changes to that particular page and to backlinks targeting to the page to see what form of reaction there is to that strange activity. For example, if someone stuffs a page full of keywords and key phrases, rather than the page getting better in rankings for certain searches, it might instead drop in rankings. If the individual accountable for the page then comes along and takes away those extra keywords and key phrases, its an indication that some kind of rank altering spamming was going on.

So why use this kind of transition functions?

For example, the initial response to the spammer’s changes may cause the document’s rank to be negatively influenced rather than positively influenced. Unexpected results are bound to elicit a response from a spammer, particularly if their client is upset with the results. In response to negative results, the spammer may remove the changes and, thereby render the long-term impact on the document’s rank zero.”

Alternatively or additionally, it may take an unknown (possibly variable) amount of time to see positive (or expected) results in response to the spammer’s changes. In response to delayed results, the spammer may perform additional changes in an attempt to positively (or more positively) influence the document’s rank. In either event, these further spammer-initiated changes may assist in identifying signs of rank-modifying spamming.

The rank transition function might affect one specific document, or it might have a wide impact over the server on which the document is hosted, or a set of documents that share a similar characteristic (e.g., the same author (e.g., a signature in the document), design components (e.g., layout, images, etc.), etc.)

If someone sees a little increase founded upon keyword stuffing or another action that goes against Googles guidelines, they might attempting to engage in some like additional changes to a site implying things like supplying extra keywords or concealed text. If they see a lessening, they might make other changes, that includes turning back a page to its original configuration.

If theres a suspected spamming going on, but too little to positively distinguish it, the page involved might be subjected to variations and extreme changes in ranking to make an effort to get a spammer to try some kind of corrective action. If that corrective action helps in any spam determination, then the page, site, domain, and or contributing links might be specified as spam.

If those are ascertained to be spam, Google might inquire further, disregard them, or degrade them in rankings.

So what is the best action to take? Nothing! That’s it. If you do something they will have all the proof they need to consider you a SEO spammer. Late,Gary Pool SEO

]]>http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2012/09/the-google-seo-trap/feed/0http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2012/09/the-google-seo-trap/Google News – The Short Storyhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/optimizician/~3/9SS8J1Q6Vxc/
http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2012/01/google-news/#commentsFri, 27 Jan 2012 16:01:08 +0000http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/?p=6170Google is updating their Privacy Policy and Terms of service. What is Google going to be doing to us now whth their one policy, one Google experience? Is the Data Liberation Front the answer?

One Policy, One Google Experience

We’re getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that’s a lot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.

Notice of change

March 1, 2012 is when the new Privacy Policy and Google Terms of Service will come into effect. If you choose to keep using Google once the change occurs, you will be doing so under the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Easy to work across Google

Tailored for you

Easy to share and collaborate

Protecting your privacy hasn’t changed

Understand how Google uses your data

Got questions? We’ve got answers

Many countries approach privacy issues differently and there is no consistent global standard on which all countries agree. Google’s privacy policy is designed to be a single, clear, global statement of our approach to privacy, and our privacy practices under it are designed to meet applicable law around the world.

Google may associate your device identifiers or phone number with your Google Account.

Log information

When you use our services or view content provided by Google, we may automatically collect and store certain information in server logs.

Location information

When you use a location-enabled Google service, we may collect and process information about your actual location, like GPS signals sent by a mobile device. Certain services include a unique application number. We may collect and store information (including personal information) locally on your device using mechanisms such as browser web storage (including HTML 5) and application data caches.

Cookies and anonymous identifiers

How we use information we collect

If other users already have your email, or other information that identifies you, we may show them your publicly visible Google Profile information, such as your name and photo.

We may combine personal information from one service with information, including personal information, from other Google services – for example to make it easier to share things with people you know. We will not combine DoubleClick cookie information with personally identifiable information unless we have your opt-in consent.

Google processes personal information on our servers in many countries around the world.

Review and control certain types of information tied to your Google Account by using Google Dashboard.

You can also opt out of certain Google advertising services.

Take information out of many of our services.

Information you share
Many of our services let you share information with others. Remember that when you share information publicly, it may be indexable by search engines, including Google.

Accessing and updating your personal information
Whenever you use our services, we aim to provide you with access to your personal information. We aim to maintain our services in a manner that protects information from accidental or malicious destruction.

Information we share
We do not share personal information with companies, organizations and individuals outside of Google unless one of the following circumstances apply:

We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information.

We will share personal information with companies, organizations or individuals outside of Google if we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to…

For example, we may share information publicly to show trends about the general use of our services.

Information security
Our Privacy Policy applies to all of the services offered by Google Inc. and its affiliates, including services offered on other sites (such as our advertising services), but excludes services that have separate privacy policies that do not incorporate this Privacy Policy.

New Google Terms of Service

1,671 words

8,475 characters (not counting spaces)

10,100 characters (including spaces)

46 paragraphs

187 lines

We’ve rewritten them to make them more readable and to reduce the repetition and legalese. The terms explain more simply the legal terms associated with the use of our services, including how we treat content that users submit. We’ve also consolidated many of our terms, with most products now using the Google Terms of Service and dozens fewer products than before using additional or separate terms.

Summary:

Thanks for using our products and services (“Services”). The Services are provided by Google Inc. By using our Services, you are agreeing to these terms. Additional terms will be available with the relevant Services, and those additional terms become part of your agreement with us if you use those Services.

Using our Services

Don’t misuse our Services. Using our Services does not give you ownership of any intellectual property rights in our Services or the content you access. Our Services display some content that is not Google’s. In connection with your use of the Services, we may send you service announcements, administrative messages, and other information. Your Google Account

You may need a Google Account in order to use some of our Services. Google’s privacy policies explain how we treat your personal data and protect your privacy when you use our Services. Your Content in our Services

Some of our Services allow you to submit content. Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. You can find more information about how Google uses and stores content in the privacy policy or additional terms for particular Services. About Software in our Services

Some Services may let you adjust your automatic update settings.

Modifying and Terminating our Services

We are constantly changing and improving our Services. Google may also stop providing Services to you, or add or create new limits to our Services at any time.

OTHER THAN AS EXPRESSLY SET OUT IN THESE TERMS OR ADDITIONAL TERMS, NEITHER GOOGLE NOR ITS SUPPLIERS OR DISTRIBUTORS MAKE ANY SPECIFIC PROMISES ABOUT THE SERVICES. WE PROVIDE THE SERVICES “AS IS”.

The Data Liberation Front

The Data Liberation Front is an engineering team at Google whose singular goal is to make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google products. We do this because we believe that you should be able to export any data that you create in (or import into) a product. We help and consult other engineering teams within Google on how to “liberate” their products.
data liberation mission statement:

Users should be able to control the data they store in any of Google’s products. Our team’s goal is to make it easier to move data in and out.

Baidu and bing Partnership

The Chinese search mogul Baidu and Microsoft announced yesterday they have struck a deal to offer bing web services in English. It’s expected to take place by the end of the year.

Baidu

Baidu dominates the native language search in China with a whopping 83% of the market. With the English language searches increasing to as many as 10 million a day they were looking for a powerful partner. Google moved last year to Hong Kong to escape Beijing’s censorship.

A year and a half after Google pulled its popular search engine out of mainland China, partly over concerns about censorship, its rival Microsoft has struck a deal with the biggest Chinese search engine, Baidu.com, to offer Web search services in English.

Microsoft – bing

This partnership will allow Baidu to offer better English search experiences and results through Microsoft’s bing search engine.

Microsoft appears to be accepting the Chinese censorship with out missing a stroke. It looks like they are keeping their eyes on China’s 470 million internet user prize.

Google declined to comment on the partnership between Baidu and Microsoft. But Google says that search is not its biggest business opportunity in China. Instead, it is betting on selling ads to Chinese companies to show users outside China and selling display ads to run on non-Google Web sites, neither of which is dependent on search. Chinese advertisers spent $1.7 billion on display ads last year, one of the highest such spends in the world, according to Google. The company continues to employ 500 people in China and says revenue there is growing year over year.

If you are planning on entering the 470 million internet user Chinese market you might want to re-work your bing strategy.

]]>http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2011/07/bing-and-baidu-partner/feed/0http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2011/07/bing-and-baidu-partner/MetaCrawler Breakshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/optimizician/~3/QSjKnFnxx6I/
http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2011/05/metacrawler-breaks/#commentsTue, 31 May 2011 15:11:59 +0000http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/?p=5981MetaCrawler has been broken for the second day now. It generates a Runtime Error message when you try to visit the results...

MetaCrawler Broken for Day Number 2

Both yesterday and today when I tried using metacrawler the “metasearch engine”, the results came up fine. The problem arose when I clicked on any of the results.

When I clicked on the result I wished to visit I received a “Runtime Error” message.

An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could, however, be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine.

To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines, please create a <customErrors> tag within a “web.config” configuration file located in the root directory of the current web application. This <customErrors> tag should then have its “mode” attribute set to “Off”.

I noticed at around 7AM Pacific Daylight Time today metacrawler resolved this problem for a few minutes.

At first I thought this might have been their tribute to Memorial Day.
At this time metacrawler is still rendering a Runtime Error.

]]>http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2011/05/metacrawler-breaks/feed/2http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2011/05/metacrawler-breaks/Google Panda Update – Updatehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/optimizician/~3/Tfm-t9pbeyM/
http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2011/05/google-panda-update/#commentsTue, 17 May 2011 17:17:06 +0000http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/?p=5960How Does the Google Panda Algorithm Update Effect SEO? ... So what does this mean to us SEOs? If we are wearing the SEO white hat...

How Does the Google Panda Algorithm Update Effect SEO?

Just one day after Cinco de Mayo Google released a blog post “More guidance on building high-quality sites”. With this post Google has dealt with a number of questions that they have been trying to resolve with their algorithm update.

Of course, we aren’t disclosing the actual ranking signals used in our algorithms because we don’t want folks to game our search results; but if you want to step into Google’s mindset, the questions below provide some guidance on how we’ve been looking at the issue…

Here is the fresh list of the questions Google is trying to answer with Panda:

Would you trust the information presented in this article?

Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?

Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?

Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?

Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?

Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?

Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?

Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?

How much quality control is done on content?

Does the article describe both sides of a story?

Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?

Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?

Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?

For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?

Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?

Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?

Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?

Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?

Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?

Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?

Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?

Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?

Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

Writing an algorithm to assess page or site quality is a much harder task, but we hope the questions above give some insight into how we try to write algorithms that distinguish higher-quality sites from lower-quality sites.

So what does this mean to us SEOs?

If we are wearing the SEO white hat nothing.
It is our job to help create great content that deals with all the questions above. What good is it to get visitors to your site to just have them turn around and walk out the door (metaphorically that is). We need to engage our visitors and give them value.

If you haven’t been keeping in mind most or even all of the list above why not?
If you had a brick and mortar store would you only have a door? Your customers would walk through your door and not be able to find anything they were looking for. How long would you be in business with this store?

While I believe the list above are some very lofty goals shouldn’t they be what we are striving for?

If you shoot for the moon and fall short you will be no where. If you shoot for the stars and fall short you will be able to reach the moon with ease.

]]>http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2011/05/google-panda-update/feed/0http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2011/05/google-panda-update/Do You have a Twitter Marketing Strategy?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/optimizician/~3/arCPkK1fPNU/
http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2011/05/twitter-marketing-strategy/#commentsFri, 13 May 2011 17:10:33 +0000http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/?p=5948Are your Tweets Ranking on Google?
What is Your Twitter Marketing Strategy?
The best bet is to combine your Twitter Marketing Strategy with your Twitter SEO efforts. There are even some who believe that Twitter and any social media as a group are useless for search engine marketing.

Are your Tweets Ranking on Google? What is Your Twitter Marketing Strategy

The best bet is to combine your Twitter Marketing Strategy with your Twitter and SEO efforts. There are even some who believe that Twitter and any social media as a group are useless for search engine marketing.
Are they right or are they just sticking their head in the sand?

Twitter doesn’t have direct link juice. (The search engines are getting better at using the shortened URLs.) Because of Twitter’s high page rank, not only your tweets but even your Twitter profile page can get on the first page of Google. With just with a little backlink strategy this can be accomplished.

Being a SEO Consultant I can’t pigeon hole a process to cover just one single task with a process so…

Twitter (and more) Backlinking Strategy:

Use a keyword research tool to to locate the keyword phrase/s you wish to rank on. I use Nichebot as my keyword research tool (a real time saver).

It would be best if you create a blog post on your own site that goes into the subject in even more detail using your chosen keyword phrase/s (never pass up a chance to increase your own SERPs).

Compose your Tweet using the keyword phrase you have chosen. It would be best if it would link to your blog post or some article of a similar topic.

Write a 226+ word article on EzineArtlcles and use your keyword phrase as an anchor text to your Tweet.

Write a second (and even a third) 226+ word article for posting HubPages and/or Squidoo with an anchor text backlink to your Tweet.

Use a social bookmarking software like OnlyWire to bookmark all your articles (Your Blog, EzineArtlcle, HubPages and Squidoo).

Wait for a few days and not only your Tweet but all of your articles including your blog post will rank for your keyword phrase on Google.

Even though this post is geared towards Twitter SEO and marketing in general is synergistic. This can not only be applied to other social media it should be applied with a wide brush. Everything feeds off of everything else.

WebVisions May 25-27, 2011 at the Oregon Convention Center

Portland’s premiere web design event.
WebVisions:

New Format

Heavyweight Speakers

More Parties. More Fun

May 25-27, Portland, Oregon

WebVisions is changing! Shorter, punchier sessions and half-day workshops that explore the future of web design, technology, UX and business strategy.
Great discount for SEO Blog readers on the event packages.

The Popular Workshops
Our knock-out, half-day workshops offer in depth, quality time with leading web visionaries and experts. Workshops are held on the morning and afternoon of Wed., May 25th.
The lineup of workshops include:

When I opened the door to get the paper this morning I was a little disappointed it wasn’t snowing. I wanted to be the only one there wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. Wait a minute I will probably be the …

SEMpdx’s SearchFest 2011

When I opened the door to get the paper this morning I was a little disappointed it wasn’t snowing. I wanted to be the only one there wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. Wait a minute I will probably be the only one there wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt anyway. Only time will tell.
If you haven’t heard about SearchFest it is the premiere search marketing event in Oregon. They have a great line up of speakers including:

Adam Audette

Allison Hartsoe

Ben Lloyd

Bryan Rhoads

Chris Boggs

Chris Sherman

Conrad Saam

David Mihm

Dustin Woodard

Greg Sterling

Hallie Janssen

Ian Lurie

Joanna Lord

John Andrews

John Shehata

Jordan Kasteler

Kegan Sims

Kent Schnepp

Lisa Williams

Lulu Gephart

Mark Knowles

Marshall Simmonds

Mary O’Brien

Matt McGee

Matthew Brown

Michael Cottam

Mike Blumenthal

Mike Rosenberg

Rand Fishkin

Reid Spice

Scott Hendison

Scott Orth

Susan Delz

Todd Friesen

Todd Malicoat

Todd Mintz

Todd Nemet

Will Scott

It’s still not too late to attend. To quote from “Out To Sea” “It’s never too late, that’s why they invented death”

]]>http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2011/02/searchfest-2011/feed/1http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2011/02/searchfest-2011/SciPhone i68 4G – not allowed to dialhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/optimizician/~3/ozQmRM1zxl0/
http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2011/01/not-allowed-to-dial-sciphone/#commentsTue, 01 Feb 2011 02:30:07 +0000http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/?p=5853SciPhone i68 4G Quad band Phone with WIFI getting the not allowed to dial message, these instructions should help you back to making calls again.

Not Allowed to Dial Error Message on a SciPhone i68 4G

I recently purchased a SciPhone 4G with a dual sim card phone. I was very happy with this phone. I had no problems until one day I couldn’t call out. I kept getting a not allowed to dial message every time I tried to call anyone.

I could still receive calls and send and receive texts but I couldn’t call out. After quite a bit of research on the internet I came up with a solution. None of the solutions available had all the information I needed I just kept trying different combinations until it worked.

Here is the step by step solution I used to remove the “not allowed to dial” message and allow me to dial out again.

turn off the phone

place 2 sims on the phone

restart the phone

keep the WLAN disabled

enter the engineering mode * # 82043036 #

select the option RF Test Tool (on my phone it’s option 13)

Select GSM, to accept him

go to Power scan

go to Band Select and select OK DCS1800

another screen will appear (model F003) look at each of the options until you find one that will have your phone appear unresponsive (this locked)

pressing the main button (the box) will take you to the home screen

go to the setup menu

go to network settings menu SIM1

this is a preferred mode

select one of the preferred modes GSM or WILAN

restart the phone and you should be ready to make calls

You just enter the code/s into the phone number area in the dial section and the phone will recognize it and enter into the proper mode.

I still love this phone. It has built in WIFI so I can surf the internet with out having to have a data plan from my service provider. I use T-Mobile.

Here are the particulars on my SciPhone:
Mode: i68 Quad Band Phone
Specifications:

SciPhone i68 4G Technology Specifications

Here is some important information I found that actually works on my phone.

default password is 1122

special key code to display the firmware version * # 8375 #

the special key code to enter “engineering mode” * # 82043036 #

obtained IMEI code * # 06 #

factory model code * # # # 66 it is NOT recommended that you use it

I must admit I was the one who caused the problem. I am the kind of person who wants to know just what settings are available on any piece of technology I have. So if you are like me and have changed a setting on your SciPhone i68 4G Quad band Phone with WIFI and get the not allowed to dial message, these instructions should help you back to making calls again.

The Oregon Ducks Vie for the National Championship

In Oregon today’s talk is all about the Ducks and the National Championship game with the Tigers. It seems like everyone here is attending some sort of a Oregon Duck party. I personally am going to a Duck party in Oregon City at my daughters house.

Today will be filled with talk about everything and anything related to Oregon Ducks football.

oregon ducks football recruits

2009 Oregon Ducks Football Recruits

How strong was the recruiting class of 2009 for the Oregon Ducks football team?

Are these recruits helping this year?

How much will they help next year?

2010 Oregon Ducks Football Recruits

Will we continue to get stronger with our 2010 Oregon Ducks football recruits?

Who should we go after?

Who will we go after?

Being in the National Championship game will help recruiting.

oregon ducks cheerleaders

I’m even sure the topic of the Oregon Ducks Cheerleaders will be a topic of discussion today.

oregon ducks wallpaper

Here are some of the available “Oregon Ducks wallpaper” for you to install and show your Duck Pride.Just click on the image to go the desktop size version.

]]>http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2011/01/oregon-ducks-wallpaper/feed/0http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2011/01/oregon-ducks-wallpaper/Google Local New Year Predictionshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/optimizician/~3/-jyHdSLPBWY/
http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2011/01/google-local-predictions/#commentsFri, 07 Jan 2011 17:26:48 +0000http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/?p=5801Google Local is not my friend they just want access to my pockets!

Google Local What is Ahead in 2011?

Here we are one week into 2011 and I am finally getting around to putting up my first blog post this year.
Google Local has been very erratic the past few months.
I figured I’d toss around some of my Google Local observations, predictions, and conclusions.

Google Local Observations

Google renames the Google Local Business Center Google Places

New display for business listings appearing when users submit search queries related to local businesses

Local results moves around from the top of the organic results to the 3rd position

Google’s local Results change from the top 3 inserted into the organic results to multiple results

Digital Marketing Conference at Portland State University

If you attended last years conference I know you will be there. If you didn’t attend last year this would be a great event to begin attending annually!

The full-day conference will include chances to discover in 3 separate paths involving 40 speakers, including 2 keynotes, Boston C.C. Chapman, author of Content Rules and Intel’s futurist, Brian David Johnson, author of Screen Future. The paths will incorporate an expert series, a digital marketing bootcamp, and an Ignite DMC. Network along with creatives, marketing professionals, faculty, and students, associations, and agencies throughout the day, at the backstage lunch, or evening anniversary event.

Hear presentations on hyper-local to international business in Path 1, running from the local grocers’ employment of social media to music, the arts and interactive media. Come in contact with our Digital Marketing Strategies certification instructors for Path 2’s boot camp. Submit your tale for Path 3’s Ignite DMC, and we’ll select the most compelling to engage audiences in a theatre-in-the-round. Add the Back Stage VIP luncheon to your conference packet to network with industry associations and leaders. Take a group picture in Powell’s Books digital photo booth. For the evening, help us celebrate our 15th anniversary at the 1408 SW 6th Ave Nel Centro wrap party.

Visit www.pdxdmc.com to check the schedule and get the latest on the speakers and sessions. The conference this year will provide you with case studies, tips, and techniques using the latest digital marketing practices like digital brand, SEO, engagement, and transmedia marketing. This conference has a great deal to offer. Don’t miss it.

]]>http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/12/digital-marketing-conference-2010/feed/1http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/12/digital-marketing-conference-2010/MetaCrawler and Dogpile have been Down for 6 Dayshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/optimizician/~3/ZCBA-i5PEBY/
http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/metacrawler-dogpile-broken/#commentsWed, 24 Nov 2010 18:07:13 +0000http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/?p=5750Dogpile and MetaCrawler have both been Broken for nearly a Week Now! It looks like the whole InfoSpace stable is down. How does this affect us?

Dogpile and MetaCrawler have both been Broken for nearly a Week Now

When I first noticed that both MetaCrawler and Dogpile were getting a “timed out message” I chalked it up to a network glitch. As time went by and they still weren’t loading I figured it was a problem with Comcast or the dns server I was using.

I did my due diligence and searched the internet for someone reporting problems with these sites. The only thing I could find was…

InfoSpace Appoints William J. Ruckelshaus as President and Acting Chief Executive Officer

InfoSpace (News – Alert), Inc. (NASDAQ:INSP), today announced that the Company has named InfoSpace Board member and former chief financial officer of AudienceScience, William (Bill) J. Ruckelshaus, as president and acting chief executive officer…

InfoSpace, Inc., a leading developer of metasearch products, is focused on bringing the best of the Web to Internet users. InfoSpace’s proprietary metasearch technology combines the top results from several of the largest online search engines, providing fast and comprehensive search results. InfoSpace sites include Dogpile® (www.dogpile.com), InfoSpace.com® (www.infospace.com), MetaCrawler® (www.metacrawler.com), WebCrawler® (www.webcrawler.com), and WebFetch® (www.webfetch.com).

Could this be the reason for MetaCrqwler and Dogpile being down?

After checking all the metasearch products that Bill took over it appears that they are all broken. He must be having a great first couple of weeks.

Will the InfoSpace metasearch products be resurrected?

MetaCrawler

Dogpile

The importance of MetaCrawler and Dogpile for us SEO folks is that Wordtracker uses a database of over 330 million search terms which is updated on a weekly basis. All search terms are collected from the major metacrawlers – Dogpile and Metacrawler.

I use NicheBot to access the Wordtracker database for part of my keyword research as well as many other cool things. How will this affect our info-space?

]]>http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/metacrawler-dogpile-broken/feed/2http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/metacrawler-dogpile-broken/Portland State University Digital Marketing Conference 2010http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/optimizician/~3/lIKbqaCWAF8/
http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/digital-marketing-conference/#commentsWed, 17 Nov 2010 18:16:05 +0000http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/?p=5556PSU’s Digital Marketing Conference Was Great Last Year This Year Looks To Be Even Better

PSU’s Digital Marketing Conference Was Great Last Year This Year Looks To Be Even Better

This year’s digital marketing conference has been extended to the refurbished Lincoln Hall. It sports four hundred and fifty + auditorium and suites at the same time will have 3 tracks, twenty five + speakers including keynote futurist Brian David Johnson of Intel, a digital marketing bootcamp, and an Ignite DMC.

Track 1
Hear presentations on hyper-local to international business in running from the localized grocers’ employment of social media to music, the arts and interactive media

Track 3
Submit your story for Ignite DMC and we’ll chose the most compelling to engage people in a theatre-in-the-round. Interact with content, speakers, and industry pros at the backstage luncheon, Powell’s Books photo-lab, and evening wrap party

As always this conference is a real bargain.

I will be in San Diego during this years PSU Digital Marketing Conference so I expect you hear about how great it was from you.

]]>http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/digital-marketing-conference/feed/3http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/digital-marketing-conference/National Do Not Call Registry Cell Phone Telemarketers Rumorshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/optimizician/~3/Aw6Ridc3IT4/
http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/national-do-not-call-registry-rumors/#commentsTue, 09 Nov 2010 16:30:44 +0000http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/?p=5538No truth to the rumor that cell phone numbers will be made available to telemarketers. Without redaction there must be a retraction or at least a clarification.

NO TRUTH TO RUMOR THAT CELL PHONE NUMBERS WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE TO TELEMARKETERS

Without redaction there must be a retraction or at least a clarification.
My last post wasn’t completely true. Cell phone numbers won’t be given to telemarketers. Although the phone number I gave you is correct for the National Do Not Call Registry.
Some of the other information I gave you about the National Do Not Call Registry is also wrong.

Your registration will not expire. Telephone numbers placed on the National Do Not Call Registry will remain on it permanently due to the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007, which became law in February 2008. [more]

Washington, DC — For several years there has been a rumor circulating, mostly by e-mail, that a nationwide directory of cell phone numbers will be made available to telemarketers, and that consumers will start receiving telemarketing calls on their cell phones.
There is no truth to this rumor.

Cell phone numbers are not being released to telemarketers

FCC rules prohibit the use of autodialers and prerecorded messages to call cell phones without the consumer’s consent

Most telemarketers are barred from contacting consumers on their cell phones

Consumers may register their cell phone numbers as an extra protection against unwanted telemarketing calls

Most telemarketing calls to cell phones would be illegal regardless of whether the number is listed on the National Do Not Call Registry

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE NATIONAL DO NOT CALL REGISTRY

The National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls at home. Most telemarketers should not call your number once it has been on the registry for 31 days. If they do, you can file a complaint at this Website. You can register your home or mobile phone for free.

Before I released the last post I checked out the phone number and it was the National Do Not Call Registry. I figured it was better to be safe than sorry. :-$

My apologies for spreading a rumor but at least now I have my cell number listed on the National Do Not Call Registry. :-}

]]>http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/national-do-not-call-registry-rumors/feed/2http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/national-do-not-call-registry-rumors/Cell Phone Numbers Go Public this Monthhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/optimizician/~3/hG__j2sLDk0/
http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-this-month/#commentsSat, 06 Nov 2010 13:30:48 +0000http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/?p=5526All cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies this month and you will start to receive sales calls. To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone...

Cell Phone Numbers will be Released to Telemarketing Companies this Month

All cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies this month and you will start to receive sales calls.

YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS!

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888-382-1222.(Public service post from SEO Blog.)
It is the National DO NOT CALL list It will only take a minute of your time.. It blocks your number thirty-one (31) days later for five (5) years. You will need to make the call from the cell phone number you want blocked. It is not permitted to call from a different phone number.
PLEASE HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON… It only takes about 20 seconds.

]]>http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-this-month/feed/6http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-this-month/IRS Email Scam EFTPShttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/optimizician/~3/J_Ay1p6KKpQ/
http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/irs-email-scam-eftps/#commentsThu, 04 Nov 2010 17:04:28 +0000http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/?p=5512Scam IRS email looks like an actual email from the United States Government. They had done their homework, it was sent 3 days after the final tax deadline.

Your Fedreal Tax Payment ID: 0103635405 has been rejected

On first preview this email looks like an actual email from the United States Government. They had done their homework, it was sent 3 days after the final tax deadline.

They even had a link that looked like it went to the actual ETPS website.
http://eftps.gov/R21 was the URL that was showing but…

They had even made a reasonable looking fake website at the end of the fake link.

http://s1091037.crystone.net/j5e3qu/red2.html sent you to a fake website that even falsified the URL in the address window.

On closer examination the person who put this email together has a dyslexia problem.

EFTPS ONLINE
THE EASEIST WAY TO PAY YOUR FDEERAL TAXES
Your Federal Tax Payment ID: 01037596568 has been not accepted.

Pelase, make sure that all informaiton you have sumbitted is correct and refer to Code R21 to find out the inforamtion about comapnypyament. Plaeseconatct this page if you have any questions:
http://eftps.gov/R21

Reutrn Reason Code R21 – The identificaitonnubmer you enetred in the CmopanyIdenitficationFeild is not functional. Try senidnginformtaion to your acconutantadvsier using other opitons.

EFTPS: The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System

WARNING!
You are uisng an Official United States Government System, which may be used only for atuhorized purposes. Unauthorized modification of any information stored on this ssytem may result in criminal prosecution. The Gvoernment may monitor and audit the usage of system, and all perosns are hereby notified that the use of this system contsitutescnosent to such monitoring and auditing. Unauthorized attempts to upload infromation and/or change information on this web site are stirctly prohibited and are subject to prsoecution under theComptuerFarud and Abuse Act of 1986 and Title 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1001 and 1030.

Now the clincher…
We can examine the long header and see the real route that the email made.

The Received: from IP address 194.150.140.202 is a file server from RinoSoft.com

(Post from Search Engine Optimizician.)
One last clue… This email was sent through advert-tech.biysk.ru (advert-tech.biysk.ru) if that doesn’t set off your alarms nothing will.

The US Government won’t send email through a domain for the Russian Federation.

I post the entire text in these emails from time to time so anyone who searches for some of this type information is able to find it with a search.

The actual destination URL http://s1091037.crystone.net/j5e3qu/red2.html has been removed as of this posting.

The sad part of this is that 1 in 600,000,000 recipients of this email have most likely fallen victim of this scam. That’s what the numbers are 1 in 600,000,000 people who receive a scam or phishing email will actually follow through and become victims.

]]>http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/irs-email-scam-eftps/feed/1http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/irs-email-scam-eftps/Search Engines and Fraudhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/optimizician/~3/bcqTegajG54/
http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/11/search-engines-fraud/#commentsMon, 01 Nov 2010 20:18:13 +0000http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/?p=5453I recently had a client ask me a question about some Google results I couldn't answer. When I finally figured out the answer it was a case of Conduit taking control of the computers Firefox settings. Do you have any similar stories of some sort of control over your computer by some outside source I would love to here about them.

Conduit Hijacks Firefox on a Windows Computer and Convinces User it is Google

I recently had a client ask me a question about some Google results I couldn’t answer. When I finally figured out the answer it was a case of Conduit taking control of the computers Firefox settings.

He was totally convinced he was using Google so I had the client send me some screen shots of the search results he was getting and the results were very interesting.

The search term was “windows” and…

The above screen shot is a compilation of 3 screens the single screen showed only one organic search result. While Conduit does identify the top results as ads it is not easily apparent to the viewer that there is any difference between the ads and the organic results.

Here is what the searcher saw in his results.

Only the bottom result was organic. All the results above that one were paid Google ads.(Post from Search Engine Optimizician.)
This hijacking even removed the Conduit logo and replaced it with a magnifying glass.

But when I loaded the Conduit search on my Mac using Firefox the logo magically appears.

As you can see from the above Mac screen shot Conduit does place the text “sponsored links” on the page but the uninitiated could easily miss it.

When I went to the Conduit home page on my Mac this is what I saw.

The Conduit logo is the text “Conduit”, so why isn’t it showing on the PC?

A pretty slick job of hijacking the Firefox browser preferences on a Windows computer ‘eh?

Do you have any similar stories of some sort of control over your computer by some outside source I would love to here about them.